


The Number One Guardian

by Fox_the_Hermit



Series: Destinies Entwined [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: BAMF Urahara Kisuke, BAMF everyone, Gen, destiny au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-19 23:04:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18980161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fox_the_Hermit/pseuds/Fox_the_Hermit
Summary: Snippets of the life of Ichigo - a very new, very inexperienced Guardian. A resurrected and now-undying protector of the last dregs of humanity in the Solar System.His life is pretty repetitive - go on missions, kill things. Then go on more missions, and kill more things. And then go kill some more things for fun.However... he isn't quite sure he wants his life to be exciting.Not when that could mean the end of humanity is at hand.





	The Number One Guardian

**Author's Note:**

> Written at midnight by a desperate person who should probably be asleep.  
> Pardon the typos, and perhaps point them out! Anything particularly hilarious that you find and tell me about, I'll give you a virtual cookie for.

He wakes up covered in red dust. He gets to his feet, looking around - he’s in a dark, dimly lit room half drowned in red sand, orange light filtering in through the windows.

“You’re awake, Guardian” sounds a voice, and he searches for the source.

A tiny floating… it’s not a cube. There’s a tiny orb in the middle, set in a multi-angular, pitch black shell, floating at his head height.

“Yes, well, like that’s much of an improvement. Feels like it’s a waste, all that time we spent searching, just to revive _this._ ” There’s a second orb right behind him, but with a white shell. “Especially if we can’t get him to that fallen ship in time.”

“Who are you?” he manages to ask, despite the dry throat, and the thin, barely breathable air.

The black one answers.

“We are your Ghosts. In time, you’ll learn our names - but now. Do you remember yours?”

“Kurosaki Ichigo,” he answers reflexively, and realises it is true.

“You’ve been dead a long time, so you are going to see many things you will not understand,” says the black orb.

Well. That sure sounds ominous.

Distant rumbling and explosions sound somewhere far off.

The white orb curses.

“This is Cabal territory. Come on, we have to go and get the ship before it’s stripped to pieces.”

He doesn’t have any choice, does he?

The orbs fly _through_ him, merging with him, and then he can hear the voices _inside_ his head.

 

* * *

 

Ichigo sticks to the walls and shadows as he runs through the complex he’s in, idly noting the ruined walls and marks of explosions and blaster fire. He can’t see any of the Cabal - but he figures that soon enough, his luck will probably run out.

Preferably not before he manages to find a weapon of some sort, somewhere.

 

* * *

 

He finds a chest with a rifle in it right before a massive, hulking figure in some sort of futuristic armour rounds a corner, and aims its weapon at him. Ichigo fires first, several shots striking the helmet, and felling the thing.

“ _Good job, King. Maybe we didn’t make a mistake,”_ the… white Ghost, he thinks, says. “ _Now come on, beginner’s luck won’t keep you alive forever.”_

 

* * *

 

The _ship_ turns out to be some kind of… it looks like it’s meant for flight - spaceflight. The _hyperdrive_ turns out to have already been taken out, however, which leads to Ichigo tracking the footprints on the sand to another half-buried building, and shooting his way through several more _Cabal_ , until he finds one that looks much larger, much meaner, and much more well-armoured than the others, dressed in gold armour rather than red.

“ _Oh fuck, that’s a_ Centurion _. Kurosaki, don’t die,”_ says the white Ghost.

“ _Draw on the Light, and turn it against him,”_ the other one says as Ichigo dives behind a pillar to avoid the return fire from the massive Centurion.

“What the _fuck-_ ” he curses, peering over the corner, and shooting the Centurion looking in the wrong direction, “-is that supposed to mean?”

The thing starts turning around, slow and awkward, and Ichigo takes the chance to run through the door, and into an adjoining room.

Unfortunately, that’s where more Cabal turn out to be, and in a panic, he runs back, unable to shoot all of them in time - or stab the ones that get too close with a knife that turns out to be attached to the back of his belt.

And runs straight into the Centurion.

Resigning himself to dying, Ichigo still tries to stab it in the chest with a knife, furious and desperate - and the knife glows white with charged electricity.

It goes through the armour, the electricity discharging into the Centurion, and then arcing to the other Cabal, killing them all.

He blinks.

“ _Well done. Now take some ammo and that drive, and then book it back to that ship. It is time for us to leave.”_

 

* * *

 

The Ghosts pilot the ship for him, although he keeps track of what they do, what gears and switches move, even as he watches the red surface of _Mars_ grow small and distant and then vanish, as they turn around - and then go into hyperspace, going so fast the stars are mere blurs, until they suddenly, jerkily, jump out into the outer atmosphere of a blue and green planet.

_Earth._

“Estimated time of arrival to the Tower of the Thirteen, the Last City, Earth, is in ten minutes,” black Ghost notes.

“The Last City?” Ichigo asks, curious.

“After the collapse and the alien invasions, humanity was driven out of everywhere - now only the Last City stands tall, protected by Guardians like you,” black Ghost - Black, Ichigo thinks he might as well call him, says. “Although some call you Shinigami. Death gods, soul reapers, bringing chaos and death to all the enemies of humanity. What’s left of it, anyway.”

“Huh. What’s that hanging above the surface?” His memories resurface, dim, as he stares at the massive orb hovering in the atmosphere. “The Moon?”

There’s a silence.

“It’s the Traveler. It came to us, bringing the Golden Age, until something broke it during the Collapse. It left us, Ghosts, to find _Guardians_ to protect humans. Undead warriors, just like you.”

 

* * *

 

The Tower is in the _Seireitei_ section of the City, and Ichigo stares at it curiously as they fly over. Tall buildings rise high next to short ones, the architecture a mess of different styles, people scurrying far down below.

It looks very _alive_.

Without warning, as the ship drifts over a high part of the tower - an open area full of people - he’s suddenly transmatted there, gracelessly landing on his feet and stumbling.

“O _oops, sorry ‘bout that. Anyway, let’s go see the Captains. Ya gotta register with them.”_

Ichigo swears at White as he hurries past the people - all of them in armour, and bearing weapons, none of them paying him any attention.

There’s two staircases around a fountain, leading down into the Tower, and he goes down the left one, turning to where the stairs rejoin, and eventually enters a large room. The opposite wall from him is a large window, overlooking the city - and in front of it a long table, holographic maps above it. Some people scurry about approaching and departing from the screens and workstation by the walls, but the group around the table in the middle stays there - all of them wearing long white capes in addition to their armour.

One is a short woman with flaming orange hair and eerie, glowing yellow skin; another looks like an ordinary human, if with long white hair; and the third is a robot-like being wearing a mask like a human face - the face of an old man with a long beard.

“ _That’s an Exo, not a robot - that’s Yamamoto, the head of the Titans. Anyway, you want the ginger, Matsumoto Rangiku, the head of the Hunters,”_ White says, and both he and Black materialise in the air, drifting over in the direction of the woman, while Ichigo considers the inconvenience of having his every thought known to the weird Ghosts, and especially the white asshole.

She glances at him as he approaches, and smiles broadly, taking a swig from a hip flask.

“Another Hunter to join our ranks! Hey, do you want to take my place as a Captain?”

“Er-”

“Matsumoto-taichou, please stop asking every newcomer if they want your job,” the human says pleasantly, looking up at them. “I am the head of the Warlocks, Ukitake Juushiro. Welcome to the Tower of the Thirteen Guards, and the Vanguard, Guardian. It is good to see you here.”

“Thanks,” Ichigo says, and eyes Matsumoto, who takes another swig from her flask.

“And if you would stop drinking on the job, that would be much appreciated,” rumbles out Yamamoto.

“Fine, fine,” Matsumoto sighs. “Here, kid, take these engrams for some better armour. Drop by Akon-san to trade in your ship for something that won’t explode from a jump to Saturn, drop by the Twelfth Division to get you some free weapons, and off you go on patrols.”

Ichigo blinks. “Am I… supposed to do something after that? Go on patrol, or...”

She shrugs. “Sure. Oi, Juushiro, what’s that protegé Warlock of yours whose partner is chilling in the Fourth? The Kuchiki girl? Tell her to pick this guy up once he’s done with equipment requisitions, and take him on her patrol routes.”

“Certainly - but you best hurry then, she was planning to leave within the next two hours, I believe.”

* * *

 

Kuchiki turns out to be a short human menace, and Ichigo tries to sit as far away from her as he can in her ship as they fly off to the Moon.

“-are you listening to me?” she says, and Ichigo hastily nods.

“We’ve gotta look out for the Fallen - they’ve been scavenging around the area, the bloody things, but we shouldn’t see any of the Hive. They’ve been dormant for ages. Still, both of them die easy enough if you shoot the head. I hope you don’t need a diagram for _that_ , do you?”

He shakes his head.

Please, not another diagram.

The Ghosts laugh in his head.

 

* * *

 

“Duck! Duck, you-”

Ichigo barrels into Rukia, and throws her to the ground, as a low flying missile passes by, narrowly avoiding them both.

“Thanks,” she says. “But, like, you do know that if we die in an area so full of Light, our Ghosts can just resurrect us? Our ability to use the light to do magic - to cast our Solar or Arc or Void abilities, the teleportation and shunpo and grenades and Shikai, isn't the only thing we have been given.”

“Wait, what?”

Twin sounds of laughter echo in his brain.

 

* * *

 

“Here, take half these engrams. It’s your share,” Ichigo offers, but Rukia shakes her head. “You need better, newer equipment more than I do - and anyway, you killed more. You are really good with that missile launcher and that sword, you know?”

 

* * *

 

Rukia grows on him, as they rotate through patrols on the Moon in the Hellmouth region, gathering information, picking up Fallen chatter, and stealing spare parts, and patrols of the Old Russian Cosmodrome, sent on hopeless searches for signs of the Rasputin Warmind. Slowly, like a flower. A very short, very punchy flower.

 

* * *

 

A glowing purple arrow - a Void-power forged arrow - slams into the four-armed Fallen Vandal Ichigo was _going_ to stab with his electricity knife, and loot pieces from at the request of the Twelfth. The Fallen _explodes_ , showering him with ash, and Ichigo swears, looking for the shooter.

No parts left in that mess - what did the asshole think he was doing, interfering?

A distance away, a Hunter in white armour, with a long white cape marked with a cross, the visor of his helmet gleaming, turns away from him, and transmats to his ship.

“Who was that guy?” Ichigo asks Rukia. “One of our lot?”

“ _I… don’t know. I think so, but obviously - I can’t know everyone in the organisation._ ”

 

* * *

 

“ _Again?”_ Ichigo kicks the useless remnants of a small Servitor, only the outer shell left of the massive, eye-like floating orb wide than he is tall. A _fifth_ patrol interrupted by the white-clad Hunter. Didn’t the asshole have enough to do on his own?

“ _Well, he didn’t do anything - we’re all supposed to hunt Fallen,_ ” Rukia says, cheerful. “ _Maybe he’s just trying to make friends with us!_ ”

 

* * *

 

The commlink in his helmet crackles, and Ichigo curiously lets the message through.

“S _hinigami!_ ” he hears. “I _’ve seen you two skulking around the place!_ ”

He spins around, staring, and Rukia does the same, until they both see the asshole Hunter.

“ _You think you’re so much better, hiding away in that Tower, occasionally patrolling, never bothering to take the fight to our enemies! Not spending every second of every day hunting to destroy them all!_ ”

Ichigo looks over at Rukia - but her face is obviously hidden by her own darkened visor. Still. Clearly, this asshole isn’t one of theirs.

“ _Who are you_?” Rukia asks, transmitting - and clearly hoping the asshole is keeping his own channels open to receive.

 _“I’m Ishida Uryuu, the Last Quincy - and I will prove my superiority over you!_ ”

Ichigo doesn’t have time to wonder what the hell that means, when Ishida takes _something_ out of one of the pouches, does something to it very quickly, and then tosses it up.

It rockets up, and explodes in blue - in _Glimmer_. A flare. And a _lure_ for the Fallen ever so hungry for more Glimmer to mine from the ground.

Ichigo starts marching over to the asshole, demanding he explain himself-

And then Fallen ships start dropping out of the sky, peppering the ground with purple blasts, loaded with advance parties of Fallen, and mining equipment.  
Shit.

Very quickly, Ichigo gets very distracted with killing as many of them as he can, switching double pistols for a grenade launcher and a pistol, to destroy the transmatting mining stations.

Vaguely, he notes Rukia taking up a position on a high perch, sniping off Vandals with precise headshots - waiting for her Light grenades and Shikai to charge, no doubt, while from another high perch, the Quincy snipes even more of the Fallen, occasionally his own superior ability charging to let him manifest a bow made of Void Light.

Ichigo is almost overwhelmed by a Captain, the onslaught from too many shots from too many sides cracking his armour, when another Guardian - a Titan - suddenly joins the fray, striking the ground with his fist, and sending a massive shockwave of electricity to knock back the Fallen.

It’s a familiar figure - one that he and Rukia have helped out on a couple patrols with his own errands, even though they were not for the Tower.

Chad.

Suddenly, an orange-tinted Void Barrier blooms into existence around them - but it can’t be Chad, not so soon after the shockwave-

A short, armour-clad figure dashes up to them, loading an almost comically over-large auto-rifle, and Ichigo thinks she looks vaguely familiar, feeling the armour’s nanites restructure the armour back into newness.

And then he has no time for thinking any more, because another Fallen ship approaches, and opens its belly - dropping a massive, beetle-like tank the size of a small house.

It hits the ground with a loud boom, knocking everyone off their feet.

“ _A Fallen Walker!”_ his Ghosts exclaim. “ _Take it down, as quickly as you can, before more reinforcements arrive! The legs are the most vulnerable!”_

Ichigo grunts in agreement, but can’t get a clear shot as more Fallen pour down from the sky.

Ishida must have waited for a whole party to be passing by before using the lure.

He and the two Titans scatter, as the Walker aims a laser, and several cannons at them, and fights on.

After some damage, the Walker temporarily quiets down, dropping to its knees and drooping its head, and shuddering, and they take it as their queue to attack the exposed neck.

It’s not enough, and after a few moments, a powerful shockwave blasts them all back, as more Fallen reinforcements arrive.

Ichigo considers, and then hopes everyone’s channels are open.

“Snipers, concentrate fire on the Fallen around us! Everyone else, attack the legs, but don’t use your Light abilities until we weaken it again! Don’t waste them unless you’re about to die!”

Five lots of “ _Aye, aye_ ,” echo back - and he sees the glint of another rifle high up on a shattered cliff, what must be another Guardian drawn in the by the fight.

Three snipers, two Titans to deal damage, and himself to draw the fire.

Awesome.

“ _Someone draw the fire away from us, then! Especially that bloody laser!”_ Rukia shouts over the com.

Ichigo figures he’s faster than the Titans.

Probably best he does it.

 

* * *

 

Twenty minutes later, and seven deaths and revives between the six of them, the Walker explodes into so much scrap, and the Fallen retreat in a hurry, unwilling to continue facing a full fire team.

Ichigo walks up to the pile, searching for engrams or glimmer or anything useful, as the other approach to take their own share.

“That was fun! When should we do that again?” asks the female Titan. “I’m Orihime, and that’s my friend Tatsuki over there!” she gestures at the Hunter.

“Never again, hopefully,” Ichigo groans. “Why the hell did you let off that lure?”

Ishida at least has the decency to slump in apology a little.

“I did… not expect that, I admit. You have all performed better than I’d think of _Shinigami_. Perhaps I’d even be amenable to working with you-”

An incoming transmission suddenly drowns him out.

“ _Well done with that Walker,_ ” Matsumoto’s voice sounds, and from the looks of it - Ichigo thinks he’s not the only one to hear it. “ _Fire team Chappy Bunny, Fireteam Pyrotechnics, and Fireteam Devil Fist - you will now be working together until further notice, and you have now graduated to more serious missions! I suggest Kurosaki as team leader, and Rukia as team strategist.”_

Ichigo figures he doesn’t mind that.

“ _Tomorrow, you are to go to Ishtar Sink on Venus, and investigate the recent upsurge of Vex activity! Oh, and I want the Quincy in your group. Whatever it takes.”_

Ichigo turns off his comm microphone to groan in heartfelt disgust.

 

* * *

 

“Behind you, Ishida!”

“And behind you, too!”

 

* * *

 

“What the fuck is that?” Ichigo shouts, staring at the massive Vex, floating off the ground, a shield rotating around it, long tendrils flailing through the air. Mechanical, of course, because nothing about this crap seems organic.

The gunfire and explosions around him make it unlikely anyone heard him, but-

“ _An Elder Hydra Vex! Be careful, it can shoot us through the shields!”_ Ishida yells back via comm.

Could this day get any worse?

 

* * *

 

It turned out a contingent of twice-as-tall-as-humans actively teleporting Vex with _more_ portable shields was, in fact, a way to make the day worse with the Hydra still alive and kicking and covering them.

 

* * *

 

Somehow, they survive the Vex ambush in the bowels of the Ishtar Archives.

Well, everyone dies at least four times, and Ichigo has to personally help Ishida’s Ghost revive him three times out of the seven, getting a _very_ grudging thanks in return.

But overall, they survive!

Even if the pure white of Ishida’s outfit doesn’t quite manage to evade the dust and blood.

 

* * *

 

“I _chigo, how did you do that?_ ” Rukia is standing frozen, and Ichigo thinks she might be gawping at him.

Ichigo blinks, and frowns at the fiery Solar hammer still travelling through a horde of Vex.

“Isn’t this just the Hunter Solar powers set?”

“ _No, the Hunter Solar Shikai is the Golden Gun - this is- this is Titan Solar Shikai. But- but double classing is pretty much impossible! I’ve only heard of two or three, ever, and they spent so much time studying!”_

He shrugs.

Clearly, it isn’t.

Besides, he has more things to worry about.

Like the three Hydras converging on him.

 

* * *

 

Months spiral on in regular patrols, occasional missions to Ishtar Sink for Vex extermination, regular trips to Mars to cull the Cabal and drag back corpses for Kurotsuchi to continue working on some contagion or other, and the rare visits to the boring old Cosmodrome, or the very, very interesting trips to Nessus to observe some more Vex and Cabal killing each other - and occasionally helping them out with that.

* * *

 

 _Fucking Vex_ , Ichigo thinks, leaping across platforms, and trying to find a way back to the group in the antechamber of the Vault of Glass. They weren’t really planning to go in, but then the entrance somehow activated, and let them in and Orihime ran in to explore, and they couldn’t leave her there alone, could they?

Even in a place of the worst rumours and superstitions.

A place out of which few come out of the place alive.

Something glimmers gold in a tiny crevice in the long, shimmering glass corridor he’s reached, and he bends down to pick it up.

And stares.

He knows what this is - an exotic engram. An engram, usually just a piece of equipment folded down into a compact arrangement of the nanites, the schematic stored in them, collapsed upon contact with alien matter and the death of the wearer. Worn by their enemies as decoration.

An exotic engram- a weapon, or a piece of armour, or an item, personally enhanced or modified.

He’ll need to take this back to the Tower, get someone to decrypt this.

Whatever dead Guardian lost is here… he hopes he’ll avenge them.

 

* * *

 

Kurotsuchi is the only one at the Cryptarch when Ichigo gets there, flicking through some sort of magazine, blue hair styled in some elaborate flower-like design.

He doesn’t seem to be too happy to be disturbed until he sees the colour of Ichigo’s engram.

“Hand that over,” he orders, and sets it down on the workstation, his Ghost manifesting and helping out.

The engram glows, flickers, and then expands in a shower of golden sparks, resolving into a long, rust-red and black scout rifle

Kurotsuchi doesn’t bother examining it, handing it over like it’s burning his hands.

“Name’s Crimson Rain” he says out for Ichigo’s benefit. " _The skies don't look too happy. I should sing them to sleep, I suppose._ That’s what he used to say about it. You should listen well when you shoot - each shot is silenced enough to sound like music." There’s a hint of something in his voice - regret or bitterness, Ichigo can’t tell.

“He?”

“Urahara Kisuke, a former colleague of mine.”

Oh. Ouch. Ichigo internally winces.

“I’m… sorry for your loss. The Vault is a tough place to survive - at least he lived long enough to make this,” he tries, but Kurotsuchi shakes his head.

“Oh, he got back from the- he got trapped in the Infinite Forest, so how he managed to also be in the Vault... well, he got back from those places just fine.” His mouth twists in an ugly grimace, a broken parody of the smile. “It was that _ridiculous_ disaster with the Hellmouth that killed him.”

Ichigo feels too afraid of that grimace to ask more, and flees.

 

* * *

 

Rukia introduces the fireteam to the wonders of the Crucible, the matches supervised by Zaraki Kenpachi, and the more dubious wonders of getting killed every five minutes when faced with older, more experienced fireteams - although, Ichigo has to proudly note, his own team gives out more than they get.

Orihime’s barrier and sniping combination is a thing of deadly beauty, and Chad’s punches don’t even need Light behind them to knock competing Guardians straight into death.

 

* * *

 

There’s a Guardian team there, once - not part of the Tower, a group working outside, led by Hirako Shinji, a Hunter. After several matches where Ichigo’s group got completely and utterly trounced, he offered to have his team teach the lot of them some things.

And offered to personally teach Ichigo some things in a more _private_ location - an offer Ichigo got kicked into accepting by Rukia, and which he very thoroughly didn’t regret.

 

* * *

 

On a mission to an outer edge of the Hellmouth, to investigate an open gate that used to be sealed, Ichigo finds another gold engram as his team flees from a massive Hive Ogre, the twisted, bulging head with one warped eye caving in the tunnel behind them.

 

* * *

 

“Inquisitive Intruder,”  Kurotsuchi reads out the cramped inscription on the inside of the boot’s rim. _“Hypothesis: every step here could be a risk. Test results: almost every stone and every arch and every gate in this entire location could lead to a different reality. Conclusion: I am so screwed."_

Ichigo snorts, but Kurotsuchi looks… troubled.

“Was there a body nearby when you found this?” he asks, voice quavering.

He thinks- there were plenty of bones in many of the tunnels, but the engram… it fell out of a shattered rock, like it was hidden away. On purpose.

“No, I- I think someone hid it in a rock.”

Kurotsuchi’s hands twitch, but he stills them, shaking his head, murmuring something under his breath that Ichigo can barely make out.

“They… it’s been too long, even if he didn’t die that day… they won’t send a mission to search for him.” He shakes his head again, and says, louder this time, “Seems like you have a habit of picking up Urahara’s things after him. He really shouldn’t have littered so much…”

The expression on his face is almost wistful.

 

* * *

 

Apparently, a months-long trip to the small outpost on Io to guard the local scientists was meant to be a vacation and reward for their chain of successful missions - and a time in which to cool off and hare off back into the Hellmouth or Vault of Glass to look for more gear made by, what the archives say, was one of the most - if not the most - brilliant inventors and Warlocks to ever walk in their Solar System.

Certainly, Io is beautiful enough - but Ichigo wonders.

A Guardian, who, on his lonesome, survived the depths of the Vault of Glass for a full century on the outside, and a rumoured _three_ centuries on the inside.

Ichigo’s seen the time warping in there.

He doesn’t doubt that it was probably much longer than that.

Surely… he doesn’t know what happened with the Hellmouth, hadn’t had the research time-

But surely, a Guardian like that could survive even there.

Even if the Vex are less- less, in some ways, than the Hive.

Could... could Urahara still be alive, in the Hellmouth?

If only he could _go back_.

But all missions there are banned, to let the Hive settle back down to slumber.

 

* * *

 

Patrol and extermination missions become routine over the next three years, dealing with the ever-growing tides of Cabal legions being sent to conquer their Solar System, and Ichigo doesn’t have the time to wonder more- and especially not when sent on missions to scout out the asteroid belt and beyond, to scan for any new threats, and destroy any threats with the utmost prejudice - avoiding the Reef’s ships, of course, honouring the Awoken’s tenuous alliance with humanity.

The long stretches away from the Tower are, perhaps, the reason he doesn’t notice when, exactly the weird and creepy Guardian moves into the Tower.

He only finds out when he goes down to the Captain’s Chamber, and sees the strangest figure.

Dressed in something like a warlock’s attire, the black fabric and metal shimmer with a green-white light, creating an almost star-like glint on the parts closer to the body, and… It doesn’t just look that way, Ichigo is sure. The edges are _literally_ made of this strange, warped light - or close enough, anyway.

From closer up, he can see that they are an Awoken, skin illuminated with grey light from within, tinged with green, short, choppy hair a perfect white - and the eyes hidden behind a thick, black blindfold that doesn’t hide the glow of his eyes - all three of them, like a Hive Knight’s. Ichigo shivers.

The Captains in attendance - Matsumoto, Ukitake, Yamamoto, Zaraki, and Unohana, listen to him intently, but their expressions all hold a mixture of… pity and sadness, perhaps, except for Unohana, who looks deadly serious.

“- _we must, we must move against them. Crota does not lie dead - he lives, yet, and he is recovering faster now,”_ the creepy stranger says, his voice melodic - and echoing many times over, layered over itself.

Dread settles in Ichigo’s stomach.

Who _are_ they?

“We understand your visions trouble you - but they are only possibly futures, we all know that, to know the present for certainty…” Ukitake says gently. “The experiences must have affected you in ways we’ll never understand, but letting fear cloud your judgement…”

The stranger lets out a _shriek_ of rage, of power that turns the lights dim and dark, that makes Ichigo think of recordings of Hive Wizards and their terrible, skeletal bodies draped in rotting, ragged robes.

His Light feels like it- drains out of him, and he settles a hand on his sword.

The Captains do not look perturbed.

“ _You aren’t listening! This is not- this is not-”_ the Awoken chokes, stumbles forwards, swaying, and Unohana and Ukitake rush forward to catch them as they fall, suddenly empty of the energy and vigour of before.

He steps out of the way as they carry the stranger out, and wonders.

What do they know about the Hellmouth?

 

* * *

 

Kurotsuchi seems unusually absent from all the places he tends to frequent, and Ichigo wonders if it has to do with the creepy stranger. Obviously, of course, Kurotsuchi still probably frequents his own quarters, but Ichigo has zero interest in trying to get in there without an invite - he remembers the security systems well enough from his visits there.

Is he running experiments on the stranger, or something?

But no, he studies the Cabal, the Fallen. That creep Szayel studies the Vex, of course - and Aizen studies the Hive, what little new information there is to gain from the mostly dormant Hive strongholds that no one wants to go poke with a stick, and risk awakening a nest of whale-sized hornets.

If anyone’s doing the experimenting on the strange person, it’s Aizen - not that anyone would _let_ him take a person as a test subject, probably.

Should he investigate?

 

* * *

 

“There have been confirmed reports of activity within the Hellmouth. The Hive is up to something. Find out what,” Matsumoto orders, unusually serious.

Ichigo nods.

 

* * *

 

They don’t meant to get lost in the Hellmouth, they seriously didn’t - but they’re lost, and now only seeming to get deeper.

“Matsumoto-taichou! We can’t get out, we can’t leave - we don’t know the way back,” Ichigo shouts over the commlink, and hears multiple Captains curse.

Yamamoto and Ukitake are both supervising too, apparently.

 _“Losing a whole fireteam of promising Guardians, we must- Head Researcher Urahara, this is an urgent call, respond immediately!_ ” Yamamoto barks on what must be a call to- it can’t be Urahara, not that one, has to be another one, right?

There’s an answering beep.

“ _I am here, Captains._ ” The voice sounds… vaguely familiar.

“ _We have a team of Guardians - the one led by Kurosaki Ichigo - currently trapped in the Hellmouth. With your years-long stay there, and recent escape, I hope you have advice to give_.”

There’s a brief moment of silence, and Ichigo tries not to think too hard about implications, and focus on staying alive in the mucky, dirty, bone-filled corridor packed with his fireteam, and a swarm of Thralls trying to kill them.

“Describe your location to me, and the routes you have taken, and I will attempt to recall the area.”

Immediately, Ichigo starts relating what he can recall, Rukia and Chad filling in.

A short while later, they finish, and there’s a dissatisfied sigh, and then an odd, soft thrum.

“ _As a team, you seem to have the navigational capabilities of Zaraki. Regardless…”_

“ _Head Researcher, was that the sound of a ship transmat I heard, or is that how your tech normally sounds?_ ” Yamamoto cuts him off, sounding very, very suspicious over the commlink.

Ichigo frankly doesn’t want to be hearing this conversation while neck deep in Hive Thralls trying to eat him.

He doesn’t think the rest of his team want to hear it either.

“ _It’s my tech. Regardless - Ichigo-san, try to find a distinctive room or crevice to hide at, where you won’t be trapped, and which has multiple exit points. Try to deal with the waves of pursuers as much as you can - take the Wizards out first, always._ ”

It’s not difficult advice to follow - run down corridors, judge usefulness of new area, move on, occasionally die and get revived.

The chatter on the commlink is silent, the Captains evidently not interested in distracting them with trivial questions.

“We’ve found a place - a big room with large holes in the floor, and chains going through them,” Ichigo reports.

There’s some quiet buzzing and rumbling from one of the lines - the Researcher’s, perhaps.

Suddenly, there’s another Wizard scream - but from the commlink, not from nearby, he realises.

Yamamoto sighs. “ _And now I presume something heavy's dropped from one of your shelves and loudly shattered, and I haven’t just heard a Wizard’s shriek from your end of the commlink? And that, right now, isn’t sniper rifle fire?_ ”

“ _Right on point!”_ Ichigo can just _see_ the smarmy, cheerful grin that accompanies those words.

Surely… Surely Urahara hasn’t come back to the place where he lived through hell just to…

There’s pained shrieking from the Hive now _fleeing_ from one of the corridors.

Gunfire that sounds almost like some eerie, dreadful song, and then all of the Hive near that entrance get neatly vaporised with a massive violet Nova Bomb - one of a Warlock’s simplest, easiest to carry out weapons of mass destruction.

The figure that emerged from the hole-

Even having only seen it the once, the unearthly, shimmering armour is instantly recognisable.

Ichigo’s brain switches off for a second as he watches Urahara Kisuke elegantly and gracefully destroy every last thrall and knight in the chamber, almost dancing with the shining blade in left hand, and a mixture of Void and the strange, green-white light dripping from his right, ripping through the Hive with ease.

The destructive power of a Warlock, but the grace of a dancer, and the deadly elegance of a Hunter...

He’s seen experienced Guardians - he _is_ an experienced Guardian - but this is…

“ _Oi! Vanguard to Ichigo, stop drooling and thinking of banging, and get on with leading us out of this bloody place,”_ White yells at him.

Right.

That.

He should get on that with that.

And be awed by the grace of the terrifying Warlock later.


End file.
